On This Day: President Barack Obama walks along the Colonnade of the White House en route to the State Dining Room to make a statement about the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson, Ariz., Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Morning everyone, can’t believe it’s three years since the Tucson shootings.

As I said before if he didn’t like the way President Obama ran things, Bob Gates could have quit. Gates is a Republican, I’m sure he voted for Mitt Romney, so if he had his way POTUS wouldn’t be President of the U.S. POTUS still have a job to do, he can’t write a book and tell what he truly might have thought of Bob Gates.

How many people would love to say to their job I will only be coming in to work 97 days in 2014, but I want my years salary. How disgusting. If the voters don’t get off their butts in November and get rid of John Boehner and the Tea Republicans. What would the right wing haters, the media say about POTUS if he says he is only going to work 97 days in 2014. Can’t you just hear the evening news, the morning shows, sunday shows trashing POTUS about that.

Good morning. Things are heating up around here. Went from 2 below yesterday to 5 above this morning. Glad you’, too, are getting a little warmer, SW. The whole Gates thing is a distraction. We need to focus on calling our congressional reps to pass UI. Every cold day that goes by is another one where people who cut off from any income have to make a decision about fuel or food. This cannot stand.

“Every cold day that goes by is another one where people who cut off from any income have to make a decision about fuel or food. ”

You’re right. The extreme cold conditions make the circumstances for those who are struggling to balance the fuel vs food decision more dire.

It’s hard for me to understand how those legislators who are fighting against any bills that would help those in need cannot show any empathy — despite the fact that they do not have to go through the same struggles.

I’ve been reading about the latest attack on the Obama administration via “Gates-gate”. We all know that the same attributes that are being criticized about this President would have been praised when applied to someone else.

The real frustration is that President Obama did not behave as a political neophyte as they had expected. He did not/does not cave in or kowtow to the demands of those who thought they were still in charge. He is not blindly led by those who deign to think they know better than he does. And the biggest frustration is that he did not/does not react to their attacks…. at least not in the way they would like.

Of course we all know that this latest faux scandal is an attempt to divert attention from the success of Obamacare as well as the deficiencies of the Repubs in Congress.

Google ‘Tateyama Kurobe snow road’ and you’ll see the same picture, and a few others. I don’t know who captioned it as Canada – prolly a jealous soul in some overly warm part of the world who wants to be in Cda? ;)

January 8 is the birthday of Elvis Presley – It has always been a day of celebration in my family (for reasons other than Elvis) and I remember the sadness I felt when the Tucson shooting happened – this was not meant to be a day of memory for the insanity of those who would kill their political opponents.

Six people died that day including Christina-Taylor Green just 9 years old. Those who incite people to kill should never be allowed to forget what their inflammatory language can generate within those who do not have the mental capacity to cope with such language. Too many on the right of politics continue with their hate speech denying there is any harm in their words.

It is incredible that someone with this astonishing record of reckless policies, some of which were later implicated in the 9/11 attacks and the resulting wars, should be so highly regarded as a policy-maker. He clearly has had second thoughts about many of those policies and has often been a voice of reason in his old age. But his lifetime record is not one that gives him a platform to attack Joe Biden.

Df, this is a jaw-dropping record of failed decision making on the part of Gates. As Juan Cole says, this is not the record of a man who should be attacking anyone else’s judgment, let alone Joe Biden.

Yet David Gregory continues to keep his job and get paid a fine, fine salary. Like we keep saying here, it’s not just about ratings – it’s about putting out a specific propaganda hoping it will be spread by certain groups and used to keep a certain segment of the voting population ignorant and confused.

From the article..there you go! In a recent memo to staff, NBC News Washington bureau chief Ken Strickland commended “Meet the Press” for “showing strength with a streak of memorable, newsmaking interviews and digital efforts” and said “David and team are poised to set the political agenda every Sunday and make the next political cycle more dynamic than ever.”

Layla, there’s nothing so grand as self-delusion. If they think they have a ‘dynamic’ program that sets the political agenda, I have a swamp in Florida to sell them. Let Gregory sink. The smart people, and especially the younger demographic, are tuning out.

Yes, Vicki, but that population segment is aging and shrinking while the majority of people, especially the young, turn away. So let them go about their paradigm of keeping old people scared. It’s a losing proposition long-term.

This is the biggest and best NEWS ever and for the life of me I cannot understand why there are no public celebrations. This wonderful info is being allowed to stay under the radar.
I get that good PBO news isn’t what the MSM wants to show, but can’t we make it impossible for them to hide how much better life has become for all the folks signed up?????

Here’s a map of the states, color-coded to show Medicaid expansion. The first one that’s going to flip this year is Virginia, where the still-pre-indicted ex-Governor Bob McDonnell wouldn’t have anything to do with Obamacare, but where the new governor, Terry McAuliffe, is ready to play ball. Virginia will be the second breach of the Old Confederacy wall (Arkansas has accepted what it calls a “customized” Medicaid expansion, in which it takes the money but places conditions on doling it out that aren’t in the federal law). Missouri is another state with a Democratic governor—Jay Nixon. His legislature is opposed, but he’s pushing, with arguments aimed specifically at the business community.

Let’s move on to the much more interesting category—states with Republican governors. Who’s thinking about playing Obamacare ball? Some pretty hard-shell conservatives: Rick Snyder of Michigan, Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, Terry Branstad of Iowa; weirdly, Mike Pence of Indiana, and maybe-just-maybe even Rick Scott of Florida.

An official at the Department of Health and Human Services tells me that an agreement is expected to be reached in April with Michigan, where the terms of acceptance of the money are being finalized. Pennsylvania officials have been conducting a “listening tour” (this is one unfortunate Hillary Clinton legacy!) among the citizenry and is slated to submit a plan to HHS by the end of this month. The agreement with Iowa, which will be “customized” along Arkansas lines, is pretty much finalized. With Indiana, there’s more work to be done, but talks have been ongoing.

So far, Corbett’s PA plan stinks. It sets so many conditions on people getting Medicaid and puts so much in the hand of the private health care industry, that it might as well not exist. We need a Dem governor and we need one fast.

Beginning in 1964 and stretching through today, conservative leaders systematically undermined the programs that shaped Johnson’s War on Poverty, frequently deploying racist and sexist arguments to take away public assistance from the poorest Americans. Their rhetoric didn’t directly undo these social programs, but it chipped away at their foundation and altered Americans’ perceptions about the proper role of government. ThinkProgress spoke to six American historians of the Johnson era about the evolution of racist and sexist attacks against social welfare programs, some of which can still be heard in the debates in Washington today.

HF, you are so right in every respect.
Hell, they need to have you on MTP to set their asses straight . I would love to watch that segment. I would pay to watch that segment.
So many informative, smart, intelligent voices here.
GOP should be embarrassed of being so clueless and heartless.
After eight years of complete petrified dumbness, it is any wonder we survived it all.
Thank you President Obama for being light in dark places.
Only God knows how much this country needed you to expose all the evil, greed and selfishness the GOP and so-called PL exhibits towards this President. And the band plays on…….

Private sector job creation continued at a healthy clip in December, with companies adding a better-than-expected 238,000 positions despite the inclement weather.
ADP and Moody’s Analytics said the month was the best for 2013 and pointed towards a solid number when the government releases its nonfarm payrolls report Friday.

Economists expected the ADP/Moody’s Analytics report to show the private sector created 200,000 positions in December, down slightly from the 215,000 initially reported for November.

“This is it. We’re off and running,” Moody’s economist Mark Zandi told CNBC. “We’ve jumped to a new level of growth.”

Economy taking off. Renew UI raise minimum wage and see how many more Americans will be able to join /stay the middle class.
For those who are still struggling—-increase food stamps, housing assistance and Head Start.
That’s a world I’d like to live in.